Grappling in Open-World PvP

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4 comments, last by Mtheumer 6 years, 3 months ago

Super-newb here with a question for those that know more than I.  Is there a combat mechanic that would allow players to grapple each other in open-world PvP?giphy.gif

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Almost any combat mechanic can be applied to open-world PvP - you'll have to be a little more specific in what you are looking for.

In contemporary MMO or MOBA combat models the concept of grappling tends to be represented more as some combination of root/stun/displacement effects instead, but the underlying mechanic is basically the same (restrict an enemy's movement and/or displace/damage them).

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

I really looking at something more like the gif.  Player 1 is the Hulk and Player 2 is Loki.

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Nothing prevents a team of very skilled programmers from implementing such a feature, if that's what you're asking. No such pre-built system exists that can just be plugged into a game, and the animation requirements and programming effort would be such that it'd be a very difficult task (and certainly beyond my meager capabilities, so the rest of my post is just me thinking).

The "open world" part is irrelevant (the layout of the world doesn't affect the combat), but expanding it to online PvP (rather than just online PvE or even easier, single-player PvE) makes it harder, definitely.

I'd imagine such a system would ultimately behave similarly to the Uncharted series of games: basically, a bunch of context-sensitive pre-scripted animations that can play out based on your position relative to the enemy and the enemy's current state (orientation, and combat state - e.g. throwing a punch at you), as well as the immediately-surrounding shape of the environment.

 

 

If you haven't played the game (I've only played Uncharted 1 and 2 myself), none of that video is a cutscene - it's all gameplay. BUT you lose control for short blips of time during certain moves - i.e. once a more complicated move begins, and the player' and enemy's animations need to be synced together (for example, pulling the enemy off a roof, or grabbing onto them in any way), you lose temporary control until the synced animation plays to completion. Basic attacks like punches and kicks, and so on, don't have you lose control. But for the duration of e.g. grabbing an enemy's head and smacking him with your head, you lose momentary control. With longer moves this is more apparent and noticeable to the player (the reason why I said you "don't lose control" during basic kicks and punches is really because they are so fast you don't notice you lost control - most action games are like this while a quick animation plays out (for example, a sword-swing in 3D zelda games)).

In Uncharted specifically, you only have two or three buttons that help decide what type of move to do, and the final move chosen is based on context, not explicit player choice. So it's very interactive, but sacrifices more interactivity than most games do specifically to enable the cinematic movie feel that you seem to also be interested in that requires the animations of more than one entity to sync up together.

 

Yeah "open-world" is probably not the right term, but in a sense of spontaneous combat engagements between two players, four, or more.  Thanks for the info though, I guess that's why DCUO's system had them encase a player in a simple object (block of ice, force field, etc) to be used as a projectile by another player. 

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